Honda Yuasa Racing takes up the BTCC fight at Snetterton this weekend

02/08/2013 15:56

Honda Yuasa Racing takes up the BTCC fight at Snetterton this weekend

The red-hot Honda Civic racecars of the Honda Yuasa Racing Team take to the fast and flowing Snetterton track this weekend, as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship takes off for the second half of the season.

Honda racer, Matt Neal, may lead the drivers' points table by a small margin so far, but his success in the first half of the season means that he will carry a 'success ballast' of 45kg going into qualifying and race one of the coming round at Snetterton. This means that the rest of the field will be hot on his heals.

Neal is a three-times BTCC champion, so he can handle the pressure, but the successful Honda cars have been kept to early season power levels – with restrictions on how much turbo boost pressure and therefore power, they can run – where the rest of the field have been allowed to increase their power levels, in a bid, by the BTCC organisers, to equalise the field.

“Carrying the weight round Snetterton, with the boost situation, will make it an uphill struggle. I expect the MGs to be quick and Flash should be on their tail with only 18kg of ballast. Everyone could be up there – the BMW’s form over the last couple of rounds means it should be pretty monstrous.”

“It’s also a good track for overtaking. There are three corners – Palmer, Williams and Coram – you never feel you’ve got it right and that promotes mistakes. We can’t overtake people with the boost so we need them to make errors, and the 300 circuit is more challenging.”

Full coverage of the BTCC is shown on ITV4, and it's certainly one of the most feisty racing series anywhere in the UK.